Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1887-09-15

and in the hall of Meath Castle there
was something like a bed of Justice
being held. The duke and duchess were
both present: and every servant of that
great household was gathered together;
Mrs Grey was there. 1t as not quite
known who had asked her to be present;
she stood t far from the duchess, no
addressed her from time o tire. The
superintendent from Clavering was
there, busily engaged in discussing the
robbery with Mr.. Barton, the Lon
don detective Mr.. Barton took a
gloomy view of the matter; hs thought
the robbery had been committed by
some one in the hou ehold.
"Ihe diamonds" he said, "are most
probably at tie present time hidden in
the Castle. We will search the whole
place."
But. first of all, the duke insisted
upon gathering all his servants round
him; he els them how grieved he is
that such thing should have taken
place in his household; how grieved he
is that their boxes and rooms should be
sea ched; tina il is an indignity he does
not like to put upon them, knowing
well how faithful and honest they are.
But tie loss is terrible, and justice must
be done, they must all submit to he
same fate; and it is the dukes wish
hat they shou remain where they are
until the search is concluded.
When he had finished his speech, he
duke bowed cour eously to Mrs. Grey.
MADAME" he said, "you have no
no place here"
"He simply meant that she was nei-
ther dependent nor guest, but those
few words drew the detectives atten-
ton to her
He was struck by the sad, sor owful
beauty of her face.
He was terriblJ quick and keen, this
Mr.. Barton; he detected in one moment
what no one else up to the present time
had seen. He felt perfectly sure that
in some way Mrs. Grey was disguised,
and that she was not what she seemed
to be; one quick glance told him that
her appearance was not quite natural.
He was so accustomed to disguise il all
its shapes and TO ms that he detected il
where no one else could have done He
said to himself as he looked at her:
"She has changed either the color OF
her face or of her hair and in few
minutes more he decided which it was.
Her hair has been of fair or golden
hue, and for some reason or other she
has dyed it black, the same with her
@ ebrows " said this keen analyst of
woman's face. disguise means mys-
terry, and mystery as Il rule means
wrong; it may not be the case here, or
it may
Mr.. Barton's thoughts ran upon Mrs.
Grey, the only person in that hall who
seemed out of place, the upper servants
stood grouped together. the lower men,
bers of the household stood in the same
fashion, the duke and duchess were
consulting together in the deep oriel
window.
~ can unders and what you feel"
the duchess was saying. "by what /
feel myself; some or my mothers Jew
els were in the safe, and nothing could
ever replace them to me-"
Mrs. Grey heard the words. and
trembled as she heard them
Mr.. Barton, under pretense of getting
glass of sherry, retired with the but
Ter, and in very short time had con-
trived to elicit from him all that he
knew of Mrs. Grey.
"a lady," everybody agreed. "Made
the most exquisite lace -mended and
arranged all the valuable lace belong
ing TO the duchess said TO be worth
many thousand pounds. OF her previ.
Gus history no one knew anything. She
came to live at Clavering about the
same time that the duke and duchess
came home, and the duchess had taken
great fancy TO her."
"Why was she here?"
"She was repairing some very valua'
BILE tapestry
"An adventures. | am sure" said
the detective, to himself. Il know the
class; planted here, most likely on ac-
count of the duchess diamonds "
He thought to himself that here was
the clew TO the mystery.
Here, in the person of this lone,
graceful, dignified woman, whose dig
nifty and sorrow seemed to infold her =
a woman under disguise, as was APP
parent to his keen eyes if to no others
a woman W had almost disfgured
herself by hiding the color of her hair
and her eyebrows He was quick to
scent mystery rs the lion to scent his
prey. She was not at home with the
servants she was not one with the
family group, and she was not visitor,
besides which there had been something
in her face, he could not tell what; he
had not been able TO read it clearly;
but there was an expression on it that
set her apart from every one else
While he slipped his glass of sherry,
Mr.. Barton congratulated himself on
nc Oh 10 hp.I nN -, a.
with Mrs. Grey; another might have
quite overlooked her. To him she was
the key of the mystery; another might
not have seen that she had any share
in it.
Then the different groups in the great
hall were dism ssed after the duke had
told them that one and all in the house
hold would be compelled to submit to o
search in their rooms, of their boxes,
and of all that belonged to them.
No one had the faintest objection.
The stately old housekeeper. Mrs Hill
ton. was the first to advance and give
up the keys of her boxes to Mr.. Parton,
who received them with bow. 1t
would have been much easier to imagine
that an archbishop could have been a
thief, than to suspect Mrs. Hilton; the
but er gave up his keys; several of the
servants did the same thing. The de-
tective said to the duke:
1t will take some time, your grace,
to condu { this search 1t will be best
for the butler and one of our men to go
round with me-"
''Do just as you will, Mr. Barton"
said the duke, with waive of his hand.
"The whole affair is most painful to